Deal
by DameMaggie
Summary: Minerva McGonagall receives an unexpected visit and will be forced to betray Albus Dumbledore, how will he react to this? Will this couple get through this? ADMM.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters, they all belong to JKRowling

NOTE:I'm sorry for the spelling/grammar/typing mistakes in advance, I haven't written anything in a while... Hope you enjoy. I will try and finish it ASAP. Please review I'd love to hear comments!

Minerva slammed shut the portrait to the Gryffindor common room and walked out briskly, her eyes nervously scanning her surroundings. Her hair was out of its usual bun and falling down her shoulder in an untidy plait, a few strands of hair framing her now stern looking face.

"Where in the name of Merlin…", she muttered.

Her heels made a clattering sound which echoed and was finally absorbed by the dark silence of the castle. She was wearing a dark blue robe and a white silk nightdress underneath.

"As soon as I find him I am going to…," she continued as she turned into a dimly lit hallway. "Lumos."

'_Damn it's the last night of school year, I can't put him in detention…,'_she thought. She was furious. It was not a good time to be exploring the castle at night, now that Voldemort had returned. She had taken the time to talk to her Gryffindors about their safety, and how they should be ready for what was coming. Of course, there were those who didn't believe in the Dark Lord's return. Still, that was no excuse for wondering about the corridors in the middle of the night.

She stepped carefully into the hallway trying not to make a sound. A rustling sound had put her on the alert. There was someone close by.

She was straining to see if anything was moving in the darkness, but there seemed to be noone there. She took a few more steps into the hallway, trying to see if the doors to the classrooms were properly closed. Everything seemed normal here.

Steps, firm steps approaching. Someone was coming from the opposite direction.

"Lumus maxima!" she commanded. The tip of her wand shone brighter and she could make out a tall figure walking towards her.

"Who's that? Show yourself," she stated firmly.

The figure stepped forward and into the white light that came from the tip of her wand. A translucid image of a man had emerged from the darkness.

"Hello Minerva," the voice was soft and hoarse and it sent a shiver down Minerva's spine, "don't you look pretty with your hair down."

Minerva tried to breathe steadily, she couldn't believe her eyes. This was unexpected. Her heart was racing.

"Don't be afraid, I'm only a projection… I can't harm you… at least not much. Besides, I'm only here to negotiate."

She swallowed her pride and ignored the first part of the comment.

"Negotiate? W-what do you mean?" she demanded, firmly pointing her wand at the ghostly figure.

She heard him produce what sounded like a chuckle .

"You are going to work for me now."

"No, I won't," she replied. "Never."

"Oh, but you will," he stated matter-of-factly. "You will find that I can be very persuasive, love," he looked into her eyes. "Now, you can either do what I tell you or resist me and watch me kill Albus Dumbledore."

Raising one long, dead white, translucid hand he gently pushed her wand down, pointing it away from him. She didn't fight back, she was paralysed.

"You know, Minerva, that I have the power to kill him now. He doesn't stand a chance."

"I-I don't understand… "

"That old man thinks he has won. He thinks _love,_" he flinched as he pronounced this last word, "can defeat me. I am going to show him just how painful it can be. And then, when he is on the floor begging me to kill him, dying of a broken heart, then…," his black eyes glimmering with power stared blankly into the darkness behind her, "I will have won."

Minerva involuntarily gasped, pressing her palm to her chest as she processed what she had just learnt.

"You can save him," he added.

She closed her eyes as she tried to think. A few lonely tears were rolling down her cheeks. _'I can't betray him…'_ she thought, _'but I can't let him die…I can't risk it.'_

"Will you let him live? If I do this?"

"Yes…"

"Fine, we… have a deal," she replied with tears in her eyes.

Then he disappeared into the darkness


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Albus was pacing in his study, thinking. All day he had been trying to find some time to think, to try to understand what the next step was. He rubbed his temples as he finally succumbed to his acute back pain and sat down behind his desk. Sighing he decided enough was enough, he was exhausted. Lately everything had turned out wrong. The ministry was nowhere near admitting that Voldemort had returned and to the public eye Harry was a liar and he was an old lunatic headmaster. The ministry was already pressing for him to leave Hogwarts…

He opened his drawer looking for a sherbet lemon. Letters, useless pieces of parchment, envelopes, some emerald green ink, quills, sherbet lemon wrappings, some old photographs…

A pair of round green eyes caught his gaze. A young face framed by long, wavy, chestnut brown hair smiled at him and he just couldn't help smiling back. There was something about this particular pair of eyes that just made him wonder how it was possible that something of such beauty actually existed.

"Minerva…," he whispered, talking to the smiling picture, "always so brave…and gentle."

He sighed and put the photograph back into the drawer.

"Damn it!" , he slid his right hand inside his cloak and grabbed his manhood, already firm. He had been thinking about her all day. "I should burn that picture!" he complained, although he knew he never would. He stroked his penis and thought about how beautiful she had looked a few months ago during the Yule Ball. Seeing her dance with Ludo Bagman had been enfuriating. He should have asked her to go with him, but he had been too busy to think about the dance. He had missed his chance to enjoy the feeling of her body close to his.

He closed his eyes and pictured her gorgeous green eyes looking right into his, he imagined her straddling him, her moans of pleasure… In his dream he wasn't polite and gentle, he was rough and passionate.

He had to work for a while, but he finally came, calling her name as always.

When he was done he was still moody. Everything was still wrong and Minerva McGonagall was still his only in his dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It was the first day of hollidays and when Professor McGonagall woke up she still couldn't believe what had happened to her the night before. From the window came the sound of the students' voices. The Hogwarts Express would be leaving anytime.

She already had her instructions. All she needed was to muster up the necessary courage to carry them out.

The train blew its horn indicating it was time for everyone to board.

She took a long shower, perhaps purposely trying to delay her own actions. She then put on her favourite emerald green robe and fixed her hair in her usual bun. Minerva sat on her desk, took her quill and ink and a piece of parchment.

_Miss Rita Skeeter:_

_I have some information that might be of interest to you._

_Please meet me at Hog's Head tomorrow at 3:00._

_Prof. Minerva McGonagall._

She took the scrool and headed for the owlery, which was on the other side of the castle.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rita Skeeter sat on a table in a dark corner at Hog's Head. She was making her best effort not to touch anything around her, she had even laid a handkerchief on her seat so as not to come into direct contact with whatever filth the seat had on it. She could hardly imagine why a reserved woman such as Minerva McGonagall could have contacted her. What news could she have that she might not have already heard, she didn't know. However, this was someone who knew both Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, she was a reliable source and whatever she wanted to talk about, Rita was sure she would get something out of her in the end. After all, any story concerning Potter and Dumbledore would make headlines these days.

She recognised McGonagall's tall and graceful figure as soon as she stepped into the bar.

Once they were both facing eachother, Minerva surprisingly gave her a polite smile. Rita's quill was poised and ready to start taking notes.

"Minerva!" a masculine voice greeted her and for a moment all eyes were fixed on both of them. McGonagall turned around and noticed the bearded man approaching her table from behind the bar.

"Abeforth!" she exclaimed.

"Dear Minerva, how have you been? Rough year at Hogwarts?" he said smiling.

"Oh, you know, busy... What about yourself?"

"I can't complain," he chuckled.

"Well, I'm glad you stopped by. I see..." he briefly glanced at Rita as if she were smoething that didn't belong in that bar, "you have company." He took Minerva's hand in his and kissed it's back. "Pleasure seeing you. If you need anything please let me know."

"Thank you so much Abe, glad to see you too!" she smiled at him. _'Merlin, why did I choose this specific bar? Having Abeforth here is just going to make it harder,' _she thought, remembering that the actual reason why she frequented this bar was because Abeforth reminded her so very much of Albus. She didn't quite remember how she had finally engaged in conversation for the first time with the barman, but she gathered it was most probably due her constant staring.

Rita cleared her throat, in an attempt to remind McGonagall she was still there.

"Oh, of course!" the professor exclaimed and sat down facing the journalist again.

"So...Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchraft," Rita made a small pause for a more dramatic effect, "...and Wizardry. Currently you teach Transfiguration and you are Albus Dumbledore's right hand... am I correct?"

"I would say that about sums it all up, yes."

"And so... how may I be of service? Perhaps, you would like to share your point of view on this years events? Was it you who placed Potter's name in the cup? Perhaps to bring Gryffindor house back to its days of glory? Or was it just because Dumbledore ordered you to?"

"No," McGonagall stated firmly, "none of that. Neither Dumbledore nor myself had anything to do with that." She paused. "But I can tell you something else..."

* * *

Sunlight poured into Dumbledore's office through its magnificent window, bathing every book and every parchment and even Fawkes, who was enjoying the warmth as he watched his master work. The holliday season wasn't starting off all that well for Albus. This particular morning he had received a particularly large stack of letters to answer. Most of them were probably annoying ministry inquiries he did not have time to deal with right now. It was 7 am and he was already stressed.

Somebody knocked on the door. Albus wondered who it could be at this time.

_'Please be her...'_

"Come in!"

"Excuse me headmaster," Severus Snape came into the room.

"Severus, please do come in," he motioned for the potions master to come closer. Hu put his quill and parchment aside and invited him to seat on hte chair across his desk. "How may I be of use?"

"Albus...," Severus looked down, as if he didn't know exactly where to start.

"What's troubling you Severus?"

"Have you, by any chance, read this morning's Daily Prophet?"

"I am afraid I still haven't had the time or pleasure to read today's nonsense, why? I can assure you Severus, if it's another one of those articles where they call me a lunatic, you needn't concern yourself."

"No. This... this is different...,"said Snape, streching his hand to place a copy of that morning's paper on his desk. "Read it."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The front page showed a recent picture of Minerva McGonagall and himself watching second test of the Triwizard Tournament.

**_ALBUS DUMBLEDORE'S LIE CRUMBLES._**

**_Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Minerva McGonagall, reveals the truth._**

**_Minerva McGonagall finally agreed to give her testimony about the recent events at Hogwarts. When asked about her opinion on the Dark Lord's return and Digory's death she told us the whole truth:_**

**_RS:What is your opinion about Dumbledore's idea that the Dark Lord is back?_**

**_MM: 'Dumbledore couldn't possibly know what happened inside the maze. All the tests of the Tournament are dangerous and the champions agree to take on those risks when they put their name in the Goblet of Fire. The fact is that nobody knows what happened exactly.'_**

**_RS:So is Dumbledore a liar?_**

**_MM: 'Yes.'_**

The article covered the entire front page. In every paragraph Skeeter had done nothing but add on to Minerva's words and continue to call him a liar and repeat that Hogwart's future couldn't possibly be article ended with a final question:

**_RS:Who would you say is the mastermind behind this whole story Potter or Albus Dumbledore?_**

**_MM:'The boy had nothing to do with it. This is all on Dumbledore.'_**

When he was done reading Albus put the paper down. He was in total shock.

"How is this possible?" he said, forgetting Snape was sittin right across his desk.

"I would suggest that you talk to her Headmaster, I believe I saw her at breakfast this morning."

"Why...Minerva...," his eyes were glistening with tears. His breath grew heavy.

Snape had observed Albus' expression as he read the article. He had anticipated that the man would be... at the very least confused. Yet he had never seen Dumbledore's face change so dramatically. He could almost swear he had seen his eyes change from bright light-blue to a greyish draker shade. His lips had slightly parted as he read, as if he had been at a loss for words... Snape could definitely not read Dumbledore this time. He didn't know if he was angry or just upset... he looked like he was in shock.

"Albus?"

"Forgive me, Severus, I... I must go now," he replied in a soft voice.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Albus breathed in as he slowly made his way through the Hogwarts grounds. He could hear the sound of the grass under his feet and the warm breeze brought with it the smell of flowers and summer. On his way to the lake he passed Hagrid's hut, in hopes of making conversation- Hagrid always seemed to cheer him up-.

"Professer Dumbledore, sir!" exclaimed Hagrid, as he saw him approach from his garden where stood amongst giant squashes.

"Hello Hagrid," Albus walked towards him, " what are you up to?"

"Oh, me? Just gettin' 'em pixies out of me garden! Startin' to get annoyin', bloody ev'rywhere they are."

Hagrid wiped his forhead with one sleeve. He then showed Dumbledore the new section in his garden, where he was starting to grow some new species of flesh-eating plants.

"M'am Sprout givin' me a 'and with 'em. Imma 'ave to watch Fang, though, 'e always messin' 'round out 'ere. Almos' got 'is 'ead bitten off once or..." Hagrid trailed off, realising professor Dumbledore was probably not interested in Fang's adventures in the garden.

"Come in fer a cuppa tea, would yeh sir?"

"That sounds perfect, thank you," Dumbledore agreed.

* * *

"Have you read today's Daily Prophet Hagrid?" albus asked as Hagrid placed two big mugs of tea on the small wooden table.

"Oh no sir! Wouldn' dream o' it! No' 'bout ter read any of tha' rubbish! Bin writin' all sorts o' lies 'bout yeh sir. Ever since… what 'appened..."

"Yes, yes, I am aware of it," Albus replied. He looked into the dark pool of tea and contemplated the reflected light on the surface, in an attempt to find a small, simple escape from reality. He let the sweet steam invade his nostrils.

"Yeh…yeh feelin' allrigh' professer?"

"I'm worried…"

Hagrid raised his eyerbrows, evidently surprised to hear these words from Dumbledore.

"You see, this morning I read an article... an interview to one of our teachers who…who called me a liar…"

"'Ogwarts teacher?" asked Hagrid incredulously, "callin' yeh a liar..."

"Professor McGonagall," Albus sighed, "told the reporter I'm lying about the Dark Lord's return."

"P-Professer… McGonagall? Musta bin some sor' o' mistake, mus' be a lie… Professer McGonagall, sir, she couldn' 'ave…"

"But she did…," he replied sighing again, "my own deputy headmistress, againts me... How will I manage to go on like this?"

"Yeh mus' talk to 'er, sir," Hagrid said kindly, noticing Dumbledore's fragile state. "Yeh mus' talk to 'er." Hagrid placed one big hand on the headmaster's shoulder. "Professer McGonagall, she's a kind woman, she wouldn' do tha' ."

They sat in silence for a moment, sipping tea.

"Sir... the woman who wrote tha'... it... it wasn' tha' awful lady, right? Yeh know..."

"Yes, Rita Skeeter, that's her."

"Ain' she the one who's bin writin' tha' rubbish 'bout yeh and 'arry ?"

"She is," he replied.

"Why then, why should yeh believe 'er?" he asked.

"Perhaps... perhaps you're right...," Albus replied thoughtfully. "Maybe it _was_ all made up."

"I bet it was."

"You're quite right, Hagrid, I must to talk to Minerva."

* * *

Professor McGonagall stared blankly at the piece of parchment before her. Quill in hand, a tiny ink drop threatening to disrupt the monotonous yellow surface of the paper. She didn't quite understand what was going on yet. Her mind kept fabricating different possible endings to the entire situation, different plans and escape routes. In the end, however, she always discarded those ideas as foolish and try to focus on whatever else she was doing, reminding herself that it was more important than daydreaming; only to find herself falling back into trance a few minutes later.

Someone knocked of the door. She put the quill back into the ink flask and thought that if Albus was the person behind that door, at least she had allready envisioned any possible reaction he might have, she would have allready gone through this conversation in her mind and perhaps it would not be that hard.

"Come in," she said.

"Minerva McGonagall," a pair of blue eyes looked into hers as the man walked into the room, his silver hair looking slightly pink as it reflected the pink sunset light that came through her office's window. "May I sit?"

"What can I do for you Mr. Malfoy?"

"I have a message for you, from the Dark Lord himself." He pulled a chair and sat facing her across her desk. "I must tell you, he is pleased with your work," he added calmly.

"Well then, you'd better tell him that I'm done," she replied angrily, her nostrils slightly flaring as she spoke, "we had a deal and I have honoured it."

Lucius Malfoy threw his head back and broke into laughter.

"Oh no, no. Your work is not nearly done here professor, no," he looked into her eyes once more, "you will destroy Dumbledore."


End file.
